Things I Have Learned......

We are almost officially true Texans now. We went down and got our car tags...both of them. For some reason Texas requires you to have a tag on the front and the back of your vehicle. The last step is to get our DL changed over to Texas. I told Toby I was going to hang our AL tag in our house so we would always know where our roots came from.:-)

I'm a true witness that everything you hear and read may, or may not be true. Before we moved here we had heard "stories" of the cost of living and taxes in Austin. This is what we have learned. The housing in the city of Austin is slightly higher than in Mobile....but the city has WAY more to offer also, which offsets the increase.

The reason we opted to buy outside Austin city limits is because you could get a lot bigger house for alot less money and still have the benefits of living in Austin. It was worth driving 10 miles into the city to us.

What we payed for our house we could have bought for the same amount in Mobile and be living with a bunch of ghettos.

Also, we were in the DMV for a max of 15 min and the place was packed full. I couldn't believe it! The efficiency of the place was unbelievable. I will refrain from giving my personal opinion of why the DMV doesn't flow well in Mobile.

We also discovered that we have an initial "start up cost" at the DMV here, but from here on out we will be paying no more for our tag than we did in Mobile.

It all goes to show me that you really don't know a place until you live there and experience it. The only thing I have seen us spend more money on is gas. With Austin being so large you can travel from one end of the city to the other and waste a tank of gas!

And, the people in Austin really do drive like maniacs! There is no way I could describe it in words. I never really worried about a seatbelt before (except for ticket purposes) but here it is like a life support system. There are no old people on the roads and I know why.

Mobile was much more laid back and slow moving than Austin.....I wish I knew where these people were going in such a reckless hurry.